Releases – May 23, 2013
Over 100 boats ranging in size from 17’ to over 100’ are poised and ready to board almost 550 Active Duty Soldiers from all branches of the United States Military and treat them to a fun filled day of ocean fishing for Military Appreciation Day, this year hosted on June 1, 2013, in Morehead City, NC.
The event is in its 8th year treating Troops to fishing, but there is much more happening on shore, too: live music, BBQ cookout, boat rides, tours of a local island with wild ponies, a bounce house and dunk tank, and kids dockside fishing.
Military Appreciation Day was started in 2006 by some Vietnam Veterans who witnessed some soldiers in Wilmington denied access to local bars for fear they were a little too “rowdy” upon returning from deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq. The veterans did something about it and took Troops fishing that year in the howling wind and rain, and later formed Military Appreciation Day Inc., a full 501 3c charitable organization.
For more information on Military Appreciation Day, you can Scott Krieger by emailing scott.d.krieger@gmail.com or by calling (919) 721-1458. There is also information on their website at www.militaryappreciationday.org.
Recreational anglers who fish in Carteret County waters this spring and summer may be asked to help state fisheries managers learn more about what they catch.
Staff with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries’ Observer Program will be out in division-owned boats to watch people fish so that they can document catches of fish, fishing practices, effort, and any interactions with protected species.
Observers will identify themselves to anglers, explain the project, ask the angler a few questions about their fishing practices, and observe them fishing from a safe distance.
The division’s Observer Program is designed to collect at-sea information about commercial and recreational catch and bycatch for use in fisheries management decisions, stock assessments, development of fishery management plans, and the conservation of protected species. Bycatch refers to species inadvertently caught by fishermen while they are targeting other fish.
The program has observed commercial fisheries for years, but just began observing recreational fisheries in 2010. Recreational observations will continue through the summer and possibly into the fall.
For more information, contact Protected Species Biologist Jacob Boyd at (252) 808-8088 or Jacob.Boyd@ncdenr.gov.
Information about the Observer Program is also available on the division’s website at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/observers-program.
A multi-agency safety initiative aimed at summer holiday travel will resume throughout North Carolina, beginning this Memorial Day weekend.
The “On the Road, On the Water, Don’t Drink and Drive” campaign will work to reduce accidents on the state’s roadways and waterways, which see increased traffic this time of year. Unfortunately, too many accidents are alcohol-related. In North Carolina, a driver or vessel operator with a blood-alcohol concentration that meets or exceeds .08 or is appreciably impaired by alcohol and/or drugs is subject to arrest.
The campaign is made up of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, Wildlife Resources Commission, State Highway Patrol, Alcohol Law Enforcement, Forensic Tests for Alcohol, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard and local police and sheriff’s offices, along with participating organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who work for public safety in their communities.
“On the Road, On the Water, Don’t Drink and Drive is more than an annual law enforcement campaign,” said Sgt. David Jordan, a Commission wildlife officer stationed in Pender County. “It’s a partnership, with the most important partner being a safe and responsible public.”
Officers will conduct sobriety checkpoints and special increased patrols during busy holiday periods, combined with special messaging strategies to increase awareness of the dangerous consequences of impaired driving.
For more information, visit www.ncwildlife.org/boating or call (919) 707-0031.
A report released recently by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) makes a powerful case that from an economic perspective, recreational fishing is just as important as commercial fishing, despite a much lower overall impact on the resource. According to the report, anglers landed just two percent of the total saltwater landings, compared to ninety-eight percent caught by the commercial fishing industry.
This first-of-its-kind analysis—Comparing NOAA’s Recreational and Commercial Fishing Economic Data, May 2013—provides an apples-to-apples comparison of recreational and commercial marine fishing from an economic perspective using NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Services (NOAA Fisheries) 2011 economic data. The report was produced for ASA by Southwick Associates. The full report and executive summary are available on ASA’s website.
“It’s something we’ve suspected for some time, but NOAA’s own data clearly shows that recreational saltwater fishing needs to be held in the same regard as commercial fishing,” said ASA President and CEO Mike Nussman. “The current federal saltwater fisheries management system has historically focused the vast majority of its resources on the commercial sector, when recreational fishing is found to have just as significant an economic impact on jobs and the nation’s economy.”
Among the findings are: (1) Anglers landed just two percent of the total saltwater finfish landings compared to ninety-eight percent caught by the commercial fishing industry; (2) Saltwater landings by anglers contributed three times more to the national gross domestic product (GDP, or value-added) than commercial landings; (3) The recreational sector added $152.24 in value-added, or GDP, for one pound of fish landed, compared to the commercial sector’s $1.57 for a single pound of fish; (4) Within the jobs market, the recreational sector made up fifty-four percent of all jobs, both recreational and commercial. This amounts to 455,000 recreational jobs compared to 381,000 on the commercial side; and (5) For every 100,000 pounds landed there were 210 recreational fishing jobs but only 4.5 jobs in the commercial fishing industry.
Nussman further noted, “We’re not releasing this report in an effort to demean commercial fishing. Commercial fishing is very important to our nation’s economy! Our goal is to highlight the importance of recreational fishing to the nation. As our coastal populations continue to grow, along with saltwater recreational fishing, significant improvements must be made to shape the nation’s federal fisheries system in a way that recognizes and responds to the needs of the recreational fishing community.”
The Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), the primary law governing marine fisheries management in the U.S., was originally passed in 1976 and has been reauthorized several times since. While the MSA has made significant strides to eliminate non-domestic fishing in U.S. waters and end overfishing, many in the recreational fishing community have argued that the law is written primarily to manage commercial fishing and does not adequately acknowledge or respond to the needs of recreational fishing.
“For decades federal management of recreational fishing has been like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” said Nussman. “Perhaps the MSA was written to focus on the commercial sector because that’s where 98 percent of the overall harvest is taken. But when you consider that the economic impacts of the two sectors are similar, it makes a strong case for revamping the MSA to better meet the needs of the recreational fishing community.”
The MSA expires at the end of fiscal year 2013 (September 30, 2013), though many expect that a full reauthorization will take a year or longer to develop. On March 13, 2013, the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee held an oversight hearing focusing on the MSA reauthorization, and more hearings are expected this year and beyond.
Nussman concluded, “ASA and our partners in the recreational fishing community look forward to working with Congress to develop reasonable legislative solutions that will produce a federal fisheries management system that finally works for, not against, recreational fishing.”
